Katy B. Keeps Moving With The "Lights On"

Our friends over at the culture of me turned us on to this awesome track from Katy B., who is the most striking thing to come out of the U.K. since the xx (at least in my experience). "Lights On" is a delectable slice of pop, with a killer refrain and a thumping beat. But Katy B. has a lot more going than one hook, as some of her other tracks have elements of dubstep, electronica and R&B.

Hopefully she'll be touring around here soon.

Richie Hawtin Streaming Minus Beats Right Now

Head over to Richie Hawtin's Ustream page to hear the Minus boss and his colleagues spin. I believe it's Troy Pierce who's on right now, and the beats are sick!

Speaking of Minus, Magda's From The Fallen Page is out this week, and you can check out some tracks on YouTube. Resident Advisor also has a review.

Here's some vintage Hawtin, if you aren't familiar with him.

(Not) CMJ 2010: The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Ty Segall, Javelin, Active Child, and Cults Played #Offline

Madeline Follin of Cults

Rushing over from the BrooklynVegan day party last Saturday, I arrived at Brooklyn Bowl and saw a line for Pitchfork's #Offline Festival. Frowning, and hoping I didn't miss Cults, I took my spot and pondered the likelihood of the venue being packed already (it was around 4 pm). Thankfully, things moved relatively quickly, and no, it wasn't crowded inside at all.

Which is really a shame, because Cults is quite good. They won me over easily a few weeks back with the nostalgic, swooning "Go Outside," its harpsichord twinkle and Madeline Follin's sky-high vocals proving irresistible. But as their recent Daytrotter session suggested, there's more to the band than just the two figures on the cover art of their first single (I'm not even sure if those are members of the band). Indeed, Cults set up as a six-piece, and the plethora of guitars made for a full sound. Still, Follin was the centerpiece in space and sound, perpetually swaying. Judging from the amount of new material I heard, we should expect a full length shortly.

Until then, grab some songs from their' 7'' over at Bandcamp. You'll be glad you did.

Next, Active Child's Pat Grossi made an immediate impression, sitting with a harp and filling the room with his soaring voice. He's said that he's a former member of a boy's choir, and that choral influence really suffused his music, even when he switched over to synth for the second half of his set. Harps inevitably make me think of Joanna Newsom, but Grossi has a more technological vibe, although both of them have pretty distinct voices. If anything, I'd say Active Child aspires to some of M83's more cinematic moments, although with less bombast. Another pretty good indicator, as previously mentioned, is the band's remix of tourmates School of Seven Bells, which brings an operatic quality to the vocals.

MP3: School of Seven Bells - Heart Is Strange (Active Child Remix)

A very entertaining Javelin gave the crowd a strong workout, with Tom van Buskirk supplying the goofy, stream-of-conscious rapping and George Langford pounding the drum kit. In the background were projections of various sports, and van Buskirk said at one point that he was inspired by middle school dancers. They sampled a variety of sources, from video game bleeps to old school hip hop, and apparently broadcast through a bunch of boomboxes, which is all sorts of awesome. I really liked Javelin's mix of live instruments and crate-digging, and it made for a spontaneous-sounding good time. Javelin also regularly posts mixes on their colorful website, and here's one.

MP3: Javelin - Andrean Ocean Tape

Ty Segall was up next, and I think it was a case where the live mix had guitars burying the vocals, and I couldn't really distinguish them from your typical indie rock band, aside from a cover of what I believe was "Crazy Train." Listening to their recorded stuff now, I can get a better feel for the band's grungy, fuzzed out sound, which admittedly isn't my favorite sort of music, but there's also a decent dose of melody as well. Anyhow, the crowd absolutely ate them up, even moshing at times, and Segall returned the love, giving the mic to a knot of people up front for part of one song. Good times.

Grab Ty Segall's "Standing at the Station" over at RCRD LBL.

I had seen the Pains of Being Pure At Heart twice in outdoor spaces - first at the South Street Seaport, then at this year's Village Voice Siren Festival - and I've been impressed with the fullness of their sound. Two guitars, a bass, synth and drums can really do wonders, and they were a blast once again. Kip Berman's vox was a bit quiet, but those glorious, jangly hooks were tremendous. The Pains played some new tracks, which didn't seem to deviate too much, but if ain't broke, don't fix it.

MP3: The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Everything With You

Footage of "Young Adult Friction," courtesy of Plastic Impossible, and rest of the photos after the jump.

CMJ 2010: Titus Andronicus, Wild Nothing, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., Ted Leo and Morning Teleportation Played Public Assembly

It was surreal walking down North 6th Street in the daytime. Shows tend to start pretty late at Music Hall of Williamsburg, and The Bunker at Public Assembly doesn't really get going until midnight, so I'm always in the area when it's dark. But on Saturday at noon, I found myself hurrying over to the BrooklynVegan day party, announced just a few days prior, the start of what would be an epic day of music. (The final band count would be 17.)

We arrived at the venue, and thankfully there wasn't that dreaded line at the door. It was actually pretty smooth throughout the day, and I have to give the promoters huge credit for squeezing in so many people and bands in just a few hours. The sets were pretty short, clocking in at around 25 minutes each, but as the saying goes, quality over quantity.

Morning Teleportation started things off, veering from psychedelic licks to twangier territory. Singer Tiger Merritt's falsetto was paired nicely with some oohs from his bandmates, and he also a tube strapped to his mic for some vocoder action. A trumpet finished off the eclectic arsenal.

The great Ted Leo was next, with an unusually early set time, as he had to play the WFMU Record Fair later in the afternoon. He played without the Pharmacists, flexing his electric guitar muscles. Unfortunately he had to cut a couple tracks to stay on schedule, and sadly there was no "Me and Mia" or, for that matter, Kelly Clarkson to be had. He did, however, finish things off with a cover of Robyn's "With Every Heartbeat," transmuting the electro pop into guitar wizardry, without sacrificing the emotion. (Here's video footage of "The High Party," and here's some more "official" videos.)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. had the most distinct outfits of the week, wearing logo-emblazoned jumpsuits in the tradition of NASCAR drivers. They also placed two light-up "J" and "R" blocks to flank the stage, and at one point one guy flung on a light-up jacket. So, quite the visual spectacle, and the music was pretty fun as well, with sunny two-part harmonies that stayed hooky, despite some songs that were apparently about corporations.

After seeing Wild Nothing open for Stars a month ago, I was struck by the contrast between their live sets and their record, Gemini. The album has a mesmerizing sheen, while the band sounds more direct on stage. But having listened to the record to death over the last couple weeks, I was really looking forward to seeing them play again, and the intimacy of Public Assembly was fantastic compared to cavernous Terminal 5. Those tightly coiled hooks were awesome, and the band hummed along, tossing in some songs from EPs, along with their full-length material.

Wild Nothing will be playing tonight (Thursday) at NYU's Kimmel Center, with Baths (more on him later) and Julianna Barwick. Highly recommended.

Here's "Summer Holiday" from the show, capturing the set nicely. "Chinatown" is also up.

I'm not really a Titus Andronicus fan - they seem like perfectly nice people, but it's just a bit too raw and not melodic enough with me. But it was definitely a bummer to see the band get cut off - apparently by mistaken - by the sound guy after just a few songs. They started off the short set with "A More Perfect Union," which rocked pretty hard, and the band was constantly in motion, jumping about the small stage.

Then, it was time to hurry up to North 11th for #Offline Festival. That review will be posted soon.

Rest of the photos after the jump.

Terra Firma's EMI Lawsuit Against Citi Group Continues

L&L Holdings' 150 Fifth Avenue, home of EMI Music (via WikiCommons)

Guy Hands and his firm, Terra Firma Capital Partners, are suing Citigroup for $8.4 billion, accusing the bank of deceptive over the value of the troubled major label EMI. Terra Firm purchased EMI back in 2007 for around $6.3 billion, and Hands said that he was deceived by Citi's David Wormsley, who allegedly made it seem as if there was another interested buyer, Cerberus Capital Management, when there wasn't. Meanwhile, Wormsley said that Hands was known to lowball offers and professes his good intentions. The decision will be up to the nine-person jury, although the loser could very well appeal with so much money on the line.

This smells like a boom-time acquisition gone wrong, exacerbated by the tumult in the music industry. Terra Firma even apparently labeled the deal "project dice," and it came, of course, a year before the collapse of Lehman. A couple months later, EMI cut 15 percent of its staff, and the label is now in danger of defaulting on its loans to Citi. And while Terra Firma could alleviate some of the debt by winning this lawsuit, the health of the label doesn't seem like a concern.

One has to feel some pity for the staffers at EMI. I know at least some of them actually care about music.

(Full disclosure: I was an unpaid intern at Astralwerks, whose parent company is EMI, in 2008.)

CMJ 2010: Family Portrait, Street Chant, Ecstatic Sunshine, Fluffy Lumbers and Pigeons Played Shea Stadium

I finally made it over to Shea Stadium, one of the many D.I.Y. concerts venues in Bushwick, for last Friday's Microphone Memory Emotion and Rose Quartz showcase. Though it wasn't an official CMJ event, I wasn't familiar with any of the bands, and that's good enough for me to count it as part of the marathon. The venue is really cool, with Mets paraphernalia, homemade lights, and some couches. It's a nice, intimate size, although everyone's ears were aching a bit afterwards.

Pigeons started things off with a pleasant, ethereal haze, with the singer sounding like a doppelganger for Asobi Seksu's Yuki Chikudate on the first song I heard. The band meandered in the best way, saturating the room with pretty vocals and shoegazey instruments. There was even some French lyrics at the end, à mon excitation.

Fluffy Lumbers weathered some technical problems - singer Samuel Franklin's voice was a bit buried under the guitars - but they played a satisfying, hard-hitting set. Guitarist (and former WNYU DJ) Alex Craig would play a few chords from various classic rock songs during lulls, and while Fluffy Lumbers comes from a scrappier sort of indie inspiration, they had some guitar chops for sure. The band will be playing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (!) on Nov. 3 as part of the John Baldessari event, and while Franklin said they needed practice, they should be fine, judging from what I heard.

Ecstatic Sunshine was next. The band is just Matthew Papich now, with old member Dustin Wong leaving to focus on Ponytail and his solo stuff, and I'll admit it was a little jarring going from a Fluffy Lumbers' full-out sound to Papich's electronic textures. Wong is a guitarist, and there was still some six-string residue coming out of Papich's machines, which danced between ambient washes and more song-based structure. The visuals were particularly cool here, with two women swirling liquid over a projector. Talk about D.I.Y.!

Here are two tracks, courtesy of Last.fm.

MP3: Ecstatic Sunshine - Hello Money
MP3: Ecstatic Sunshine - No Future I'm Dead

Street Chant, from New Zealand, are a lean three-piece that evoke Sleater-Kinney. They played a straightforward, no-frills set, although there was some nice harmonizing between the two singers. But for the most part, it was brisk song after song, and judging from the few girls dancing vigorously in front of the stage, that was just fine.

Family Portrait were loud. The singing was pretty tuneful, but the guitars and synth were what was etched - literally - into my eardrums. It was hard to pick out distinct elements under the blasts, but there was some interesting stuff going on under the fuzz.

Unfortunately I had to head out before Andrew Cedermark, but it was still a great show, and I'll try to get back to Shea soon.

Rest of the photos after the jump.

Apparat's DJ Kicks Out Now, Download "Sayulita"

Apparat at the Knitting Factory, 2008

Sascha Ring, the Berliner who makes electronic music under the name Apparat, mixes the latest DJ Kicks, the long-running mix series from !K7. The tracklist looks great, features the likes of Autechre, Pantha Du Prince, newly-40-year-old Thom Yorke, Patrice Bämel, Martyn, as well as Four Tet and Burial's gorgeous "Moth." There's also an exclusive track from Telefon Tel Aviv, whom Ring toured with a couple years ago (see above).

Here's "Sayulita," a shimmering cut that's one of two new Apparat songs on the mix. You can download the mp3 over at the official website, with or without an email. Enjoy!

CMJ 2010: Electric Child, Friends, Thomas Simon, And the Wiremen Played The Delancey

I stopped by the Delancey for the first time ever last night, actually intending to catch Sky Larkin and Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson. But being unfamiliar with the venue, I didn't realize they were playing the downstairs stage, so I gravitated to the first thing I saw, which was a rather enthusiastic lady in a dress (whom I mistook for Sky Larkin's Katie Harkin) leaping about the crowd. It was instead Electric Child, the new band of Alison Clancey, a multi-talented singer, dancer and artist. I didn't get a full listen, arriving as the set was wrapping up, but it sounded energetic and fun.

The next band was Friends, another new project that is sadly un-Googleable, but it was definitely the highlight of the night for me. The lead singer had a dreamy, appealing delivery, and had some help from her band mates on some songs. In a loose ensemble style, the quintet traded instrumental duties, which included some synths, a sparse drum kit and guitars, meshing together both atmospheric pop and raucous gems that would make Los Campesinos! proud. I'm really hoping to hear more from these guys.

Update: Found their MySpace!

Thomas Simon shifted the show to a moodier level. Accompanied by a saxophone player, projector and some drum effects, he created dense arrangements that engulfed the small room. Many of the songs flowed into the next, electronic textures unyielding in the darkness, but the sax added a free, jazzy element that kept it from being too overwhelming. Simon even improvised the last piece of the set, after being granted time for one more song.

And The Wiremen, who were the last band I saw before heading out, kept a similar mid-tempo pace, keeping a steady but methodical gait throughout their set. The harmonies were good, but I would've appreciated a bit more energy. Again, there was a brass instrument, which added a nice flourish to the earthy sound of the band.

It was an enjoyable batch of sets, and while I was initially bummed that I had completely missed the intended bands, the surprise was pretty pleasant in the end.

Live video of And The Wiremen below, rest of the photos after the jump.

CMJ 2010: Yo La Tengo, DOM and Screaming Females Played Brooklyn Bowl

CMJ is upon us. The festival has been a sort of benchmark for my relationship with live music - I unwittingly went to two shows in my freshman year of college, then went all-out in 2007 and 2008. But last year, I only managed to catch a random day set on the Lower East Side halfway through the festival, and I wasn't really seeing many concerts at all. But having recently returned to music blogging, I resolved to make the most of this year's CMJ, and hopefully rekindle that beautiful feeling of discovery.

Tuesday night, I made my way over to Mog's show over at the Brooklyn Bowl. It was my first time inside the venue (I waited outside unsuccessfully on two rainy occasions), and I was impressed with the size of the place, and the swankiness of the many flat television screens and furnishings. (Disclosure: ÜberDrivel is a part of the Mog Music Network, and they sell us ads.)

The show began promptly, with opener Screaming Females wasting no time in blasting the crowd. Singer Marisa Paternoster was a force of nature, with guitar heroics and a powerful voice. Strangely, her presence in between songs was tiny - apparently due to nerves - but the intensity of the music made up for it.

DOM were a shaggy-haired quartet, with grungy fuzz but the occasional hook emerging from the guitar fog. The singer - who apparently goes by Dom, but won't reveal his last name - had vocals were as thick as his hair, obscuring his lyrics, but the band was going for mood over meaning. This actually transitioned pretty well into the first few songs of Yo La Tengo's set, which were bottom-heavy burnouts with guitar freakouts.

I was a little concerned about surviving the remainder of the show, but then the band launched into "Mr. Tough," and James McNew's falsetto assured me that all was well. I was really impressed with the band's versatility, which makes sense, considering they've been around longer than, well, I have. The three-part acoustic harmonies on a couple tracks were great - Ira Kaplan accounted for the tempo shift as a way of not interrupting the nearby bowlers, and even rolled a set himself.

All in all, a great way to kick things off.

Here's some footage of the set (more here), and rest of the photos after the jump.

Keith Worthy Played Mister Saturday Night, Oct. 9

Mister Saturday Night found a beautiful new home in Bushwick. The weekly party series, lovingly crafted by DJs Eamon Harkin and Justin Carter, had been moving around after losing Market Hotel in the spring, but this space is, I would say, even better. There's plenty of space, including an outdoor area, and the visuals did a nice job of creating a mood. As always, the fellows selected some impeccable beats to warm things up, and then Keith Worthy took the crowd on a minimal ride before opening it up. Great times!

The next show will be a Halloween special on Oct. 30.

Video for Worthy's "Deep For Dayz" below, and photos after the jump.

Women Played The Knitting Factory, Oct. 9

Calgary's Women played at the Knitting Factory in Williamsburg a couple Saturdays ago. It was my first trip to the venue since it moved from Tribeca, and I like the new setup better. There's a bar in front with plenty of seating room - there's so much space that a band could probably set up in there, and the stage is in the back. There might be more performance areas, as the Manhattan version of the venue had three, but I'd have to go back to be sure.

So Cow started things off, the Irish band playing pretty straightforward rock, with a dash of humor ("just the hits tonight, no deep cuts). Then, DD/MM/YYYY played wild set with an arsenal of different instruments, trading vocals and even enlisting Marnie Stern for the big finish.

Women played an ominous set, with somber vocals and sparse guitars, but kept a steady, shifting beat throughout. Apparently singer Patrick Flegel worked at "a center for troubled kids," and his delivery evoked a dreary, almost claustrophobic mood. Not music that was immediately easy to like, but in the frosty Saturday night, it definitely left a strong impression.

Someone managed to get footage video footage of two songs. Here's "Eyesore," and "China Steps" is also up.

Here are a couple tracks, courtesy of Last.fm.

MP3: Women - Eyesore

MP3: Women - Narrow With The Half

Rest of the photos after the jump.

Chaim Comes Alive

Tel Aviv's Chaim will release his new album, Alive, on BPitch Control, out Feb. 14. Judging from some samples, it's a pretty vocal-heavy affair, while still keeping his melodic, rhythmic style. He also just played in New York, but I unfortunately wasn't able to make it out. Hopefully he'll come back soon.

Video for "Moon" below.